|
Bolton was abruptly fired by Trump last Sept. 10 amid
disagreements over how to handle foreign policy challenges such
as North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia.
The hawkish conservative said he had information about Trump's
dealings with Ukraine last summer, when Democrats accused the
president of trying to get Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
to investigate Democrat Joe Biden.
The book had to go through a clearance process by White House
lawyers. Bolton lawyer Charles Cooper, in an opinion article in
the Wall Street Journal, said his client had gone through
multiple rewrites and edits as demanded by the White House to
make sure no classified information was revealed and thought he
had final clearance in May but never got a letter confirming it.
Cooper said that on June 8, John Eisenberg, the president’s
deputy counsel for national security, replied in a letter that
Bolton’s manuscript "contains classified information and that
publishing the book would violate his nondisclosure agreements."
"This is a transparent attempt to use national security as a
pretext to censor Mr. Bolton, in violation of his constitutional
right to speak on matters of the utmost public import. This
attempt will not succeed, and Mr. Bolton’s book will be
published June 23," he said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by David Gregorio)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
